Was Joe Paterno wrong for not notifying authorities??

You have to listen to it to fully appreciate the creepiness. youtube has it banned in Canada, maybe you can find it where you are.

I heard it multiple times. I am still waiting to hear his lawyer in the background telling him to STFU.

Yeah. He's either getting some really, really crappy advice, or none at all. From both a PR and legal standpoint, you'd think someone would tell him to shut up until he takes the stand. If he even does that.

Skin Blues wrote: He was told that Sandusky was raping a boy in the Penn State showers.

You have no idea what he was told. The grand jury testimony was vague in how the information was passed along through the chain.

I am definitely in the camp that believes he knew enough, but it is based solely on intuition and yes, common sense. I just want to hear his side of the story.

He saw a naked boy, Victim 2, whose age he estimated to be ten years old, with his hands up against the wall, being subjected to anal intercourse by a naked Sandusky ... the graduate assistant telephoned Paterno and went to Paterno’s home, where he reported what he had seen. Joseph V. Paterno testified to receiving the graduate assistant’s report at his home on a Saturday morning. Paterno testified that the graduate assistant was very upset.

Do you need to see a video of the conversations between McQueary and Paterno to actually know what happened? It isn't solely common sense and intuition, it's grand jury testimony from both an eyewitness with everything to lose and nothign to gain, and Paterno himself confirming the conversation.

bigken117 wrote:I know it's hard to say since you're not him, but how can McQueary's first thought be "I need to protect the institution" and not "I need to murder this child rapist" ??

It is hard to say from the outside. All of us can sit in front of our keyboards and say what we would do but things might be much different if we were actually involved. There are also recent leaks that McQueary stated that he did stop the attack in question.

Seriously, though... Imagine if you were still a college-aged dim wit, and you busted someone who is, for all intents and purposes, the person who holds the future of your burgeoning career in his hands. How eager would you be to go running to the police to be the only witness? It is entirely reasonable to wonder if that boy - only 10 years old - would not testify about his attacker, and it would be your word against your boss'. Of all the people who did wrong in this, I feel McQuery did the least wrong... if that distinction is possible. He was the first person, it would seem, to even open his mouth about this internally, and he did so directly to Joe Paterno of all people. I mean, at that age and point in your career, he had to feel pretty good that the great Joe Paterno believed him and took the issue to his bosses. If that didn't get anything done, why would he think he could get anything done by himself?

But you also have to admit that it's more than suspicious that he attained such a powerful position within the team's management after all of this.

The whole situation just sucks hard.

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The Allentown Morning Call is reporting that in an e-mail to a former classmate, Penn State football assistant coach Mike McQueary said he had stopped an alleged rape of a boy by Jerry Sandusky in an athletic facility shower in 2002 and discussed it with police.

McQueary, who was placed on administrative leave last week, said in the e-mail he "did have discussions with police and with the official at the university in charge of police." McQueary also wrote that he "is getting hammered for handling this the right way or what I thought at the time was right."

"I had to make tough impacting quick decisions," McQueary wrote.

He has been criticized for reportedly not going directly to police to report the alleged assault.

Seriously, though... Imagine if you were still a college-aged dim wit, and you busted someone who is, for all intents and purposes, the person who holds the future of your burgeoning career in his hands. How eager would you be to go running to the police to be the only witness? It is entirely reasonable to wonder if that boy - only 10 years old - would not testify about his attacker, and it would be your word against your boss'. Of all the people who did wrong in this, I feel McQuery did the least wrong... if that distinction is possible. He was the first person, it would seem, to even open his mouth about this internally, and he did so directly to Joe Paterno of all people. I mean, at that age and point in your career, he had to feel pretty good that the great Joe Paterno believed him and took the issue to his bosses. If that didn't get anything done, why would he think he could get anything done by himself?

But you also have to admit that it's more than suspicious that he attained such a powerful position within the team's management after all of this.

The whole situation just sucks hard.

He was older than that but your point is taken and what I was also referring to.

Seriously, though... Imagine if you were still a college-aged dim wit, and you busted someone who is, for all intents and purposes, the person who holds the future of your burgeoning career in his hands. How eager would you be to go running to the police to be the only witness? It is entirely reasonable to wonder if that boy - only 10 years old - would not testify about his attacker, and it would be your word against your boss'. Of all the people who did wrong in this, I feel McQuery did the least wrong... if that distinction is possible. He was the first person, it would seem, to even open his mouth about this internally, and he did so directly to Joe Paterno of all people. I mean, at that age and point in your career, he had to feel pretty good that the great Joe Paterno believed him and took the issue to his bosses. If that didn't get anything done, why would he think he could get anything done by himself?

But you also have to admit that it's more than suspicious that he attained such a powerful position within the team's management after all of this.

The whole situation just sucks hard.

He was older than that but your point is taken and what I was also referring to.

My father and I had almost this exact conversation on the way down to the Jets game Sunday night. He's a retired teacher who taught 'at risk' kids, and I also teach many of them now. I don't know if this is nationwide, but in NY teachers are mandated reporters. I was telling him how I can't imagine any instance where I wouldn't have a) stopped the attack and b) immediately told the police, and every other person possible. He started telling me about a few different instances where he didn't witness an attack, but was given either direct or indirect information regarding attacks (either the victim told him or the friend of a victim told him) and how on more than one occasion, when he immediately notified the administration, he was told not to go to police, that "it would be handled", etc. etc. because the district did not want to have public outcry, bad press, so on and so forth, at least until they had figured out how to "handle" it -- however, as a mandated reporter, he was required by law to contact CPS. In his earlier years, fearful of losing his job for directly disobeying his employer, and having to support a young child (my older brother; I wasn't born yet so this is 30+ years ago now) he said he wrote several anonymous letters to police, newspapers, etc. so that the information would get out, as it should. Now compound that from a small district in suburban New York to one of the biggest, fiscally productive programs, at a massive well renowned university, and the lines blur, if ever so slightly.

I guess the bottom line is that it's really easy for us to sit on the outside and say what we would or wouldn't do; because the answers seem really obvious -- however, being put in that scenario may not necessarily result in us doing precisely what we think we would. Not that we would handle it any way remotely as it were in this instance, just that a little self-reflection may be in order if push ever comes to shove.